A few weeks ago, I wrote an article pitting the venerable Nikon D800 against a lowly Nikon D40x in a portrait shoot. The purpose of the article wasn’t to see if the D40x was as good as the D800 (it obviously isn’t), but to ascertain whether a beginner would be better off getting something cheap to start out with than starting with a behemoth of a camera.
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This past Monday, photojournalist Nick Ut paid a visit to the location in Vietnam where he photographed his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo titled ‘Napalm Girl.’ The short video above shows the visit, which was 43 years (to the day) after he pressed the shutter to create one of the most famous images of the Vietnam War.
This time around, Ut carried an iPhone to shoot Instagram photos instead of the film camera he used back in 1972. One of the people he reconnected with was Ho Van Bon, the cousin of Kim Phuc, the “Napalm Girl.” Ho also appears in the famous photograph: he’s the boy on the right side of the frame standing next to Kim.

Shooting flash photography with a wide open aperture on a bright summer day can feel almost impossible sometimes. You have a collection of beautiful shots that could use flash, but due to the sheer amount of light coming into your lens your flash units can’t keep up with the situation. You may be able to use an ND filter to cut down on the light, but your flash units will also have to compensate in the process. Now, professional lighting company, Priolite, has a solution they say will allow Pentax photographers to shoot Hot Sync flashes at speeds up to 1/8000th of a second.
From Würzburg, Germany, Priolite has announced the world’s fastest solution for high-speed flash photography powered by Li-Ion batteries and compatible with Pentax cameras. The Hot Sync System is compatible with the company’s high-powered battery operated strobes for extreme performance in blindingly bright situations.
Pentax system owners can

At Apple's WWDC conference yesterday, the company announced updates for both its mobile and desktop operating systems. Of particular interest for filmmakers, however, is one new feature in OSX, which should drastically improve the performance of Adobe's video apps.
That feature is Apple's Metal API, which was originally designed for iOS 8, and which allows developers more direct access to GPU hardware. In theory, the new API will enable developers to optimize their GPU-intensive apps for notable boosts in rendering performance.
Adobe has already announced that it will be adopting the Metal framework for all of its Creative Cloud apps for OSX. It also announced that in its testing of After Effects, they saw impressive performance gains of roughly 8x when rendering. It's hard to say what exactly this will mean for the other video and photo apps in Adobe's Continue reading "The New Version of OSX Will Greatly Improve Performance of Adobe CC Video Apps"

PhotoShelter launched a mobile app today that lets photographers on the service manage their photo portfolios on the go using their smartphones.
The app offers a new way for PhotoShelter users to access, manage, and take care of their business. You’ll find the same features that are available through the website. Your entire archive is available at your fingertips along with stats and info from your account.
Using the interface, photographers can make changes to their photos and account — things like changing visibility, pricing photos that are for sale, granting permissions, and delivering files to clients with just a few taps.
You can also add photos to your account directly from your phone, post photos from your account to social media, and get notified with people buy and/or download your images.
The app is free on the Apple App Store for those with a PhotoShelter account and subscription. An

Vancouver-based company Tric is attempting to be the maker of the first wireless flash trigger exclusively for the iPhone. They are taking their new invention to Kickstarter in hopes that popular demand will help their aspiring iPhone wireless flash trigger dreams come true. As they say in their Kickstarter ad, "Taking professional photos on your iPhone is a challenge. Without a way to properly light your scene, photos turn out looking too dark or unevenly lit." Taking professional photos with your iPhone is indeed quite the challenge, but if you're one of those professional photographers who uses their iPhone for their shoots, this may be for you.
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UK imaging systems firm NCTech is to introduce a four-sensor, single-shot camera that it says can create a 360 degree image of a street scene or an interior in less than two minutes. The iris360 uses four lens units in front of four 10MP sensors arranged at 90 degree intervals, and images can be uploaded directly to Google Street View. The lenses are triggered simultaneously and the resultant images are stitched together automatically in-camera. Read more

Canadian photography retailer Blacks is pulling out of the brick-and-mortar store business. The company announced today that it will be closing all of its 59 stores in Canada on August 8th, 2015, citing an inability to make them profitable in the digital age.
Parent company Telus had tried and failed to find a buyer for the Blacks chain of stores before deciding to put an end to operations. It originally purchased the 113-store chain back in 2009 for $23 million, shutting down half the stores at the time to improve the quality of the rest.
Blacks had also reportedly tried to convert a few of its stores into a gallery-style space, but that idea wasn’t able to rekindle business and create profitable growth.
The Blacks website has been redesigned to reflect its shift into an ecommerce photography business that prints and various photo-related products.
Bloomberg reports that the store closures

In Spring 2015, two photographers traveled to the rugged mountains of Iceland to collaborate with a pair of elite costume artists (cosplayers) to shoot some of fiction's most iconic characters in an unforgettable location. With only a piddly $180 in the “candy budget,” the team set out to plan 24 shoots over the course of 8 days.
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Samsung has launched a rugged version of its flagship Galaxy S6, the S6 Active. The device is exclusively available from AT&T in the US and has a similar specification to the standard S6. In the camera department the S6 Active comes with the same 16MP resolution on the back and 5MP at the front as the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, but there is no talk of an optical image stabilization system. Read more

Yesterday was World Oceans Day (it's okay if you missed it; you can make up for it today) and to celebrate, Google released an amazing new feature powered by its popular Street View technology: Street View Oceans. Working with a number of scientists and researchers, Google mapped well over 50 unique experiences around the world with GPS data to give the public access to the amazing life under the sea as well as to help track its growth and/or recession for scientific study.
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“Hello, my name is Steve, and I’m a photographer.”
I have been told that as a photographer I should be able to explain to people quickly and easily what kind of photographer I am in a sentence or two. This is similar to an artist statement, only much shorter. An example of a great reply to this question would be something like, “Hi, my name is Annie, and I’m an American portrait and celebrity photographer who shoots for editorial and commercial clients like Rolling Stone and American Express.”
When I try to do this exercise myself, I feel like I end up confusing people. It usually goes something like this, “Hi, my name is Steve, and I’m a Cuban American editorial, catalog, and advertising photographer who shoots food, still life, portraits, interiors, lifestyle, and documentary work. Oh, and I do video also. Oh, and I’m really good at

One of the most popular photographers we’ve featured recently is street photographer Andre D. Wagner. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Wagner now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and documents life and culture there through street and documentary style photography.
Last December we shared an extremely popular video in which Wagner discusses his personal photographic process. Brooklyn Independent Media recently also published a fantastic 6-minute video last month in which Wagner shares his technique, influences, and thoughts on Brooklyn street photography. Watch and be inspired:
Wagner is currently holding a solo exhibition titled “Tell it Like it Is” at the PAPILLION art gallery in Los Angeles, California.
“In these photographs, I’m attempting to show an overlooked reality and richness of contemporary African-American life,” Wagner writes in his artist statement. “My vision, is to show this as organic, transparent, and universal as possible.”
“With these images, I’m able to provide you with

Being an adept problem solver is a key skill found in most successful photographers, and with complex photo shoots, the likelihood of something not going according to plan gets pretty high. On a recent project, Ben Von Wong had everything lined up, only to have things change and be forced to cancel the shoot, or make something else happen in a very short time.
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From the days of Jack Kerouac to the culture of Route 66, it is common knowledge that America is best experienced from its roads. That’s why I decided to grab a friend, rent a car and head off into America’s beautiful southwest to see what all of the fuss was about.
From the deserts of Arizona to the beaches of California, we drove. Our travels left no towering range of Colorado mountains unseen and no scarce corner of Nevada unexplored. With over 2,500 miles of road under our tires, we made it to some of the country’s most scenic national parks, world renowned cities and famous motor highways.
I left with a camera full of photographs, a better understanding for the U.S.A and a little piece of my heart missing, gone to the valleys and the prairies of that vast and beautiful place.
Technically part of Los Angeles,

There’s a reason tens of thousands of filmmakers attend the CineSummit… it’s because of their world-class DPs and sessions.
If you’ve never heard of CineSummit before, now would be a great time to get nice and acquainted with it. With more than 52,000 people already signed up, it’s the world’s largest online event for filmmakers and DPs aiming to learn more about the art of cinematography. And yes – it’s free.
But the cost (or lack thereof) isn’t the most exciting thing about CineSummit – it’s the 9 world-renowned cinematographers who are participating. Pierre Gill CSC (The Colony), Patrick Moreau (NFL, CBS/Showtime, Canon), and Manuel Claro, who has worked with director Lars Von Trier on Melancholia and Nymphomaniac, are just a few who will be there sharing their insight.
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We can all agree on the fact that 4K is last year’s news and if you aren’t watching video at a resolution at least double that resolution, then you might as well be watching in standard definition. Alright, maybe that’s a tad bit extreme and premature, but if you do feel that way, then you’ll be happy to hear that YouTube now officially supports playback of 8K video.
According to a report by 9to5Google, playback of 8K video has been available for a select few items since 2010; however, the ‘8K’ labeling was only added earlier this year. Initial reports indicate that the 4320p video plays back well in Chrome, but can struggle a bit in other browsers. Add this on top of the fact that many users are already having trouble playing 4K video, and you have a very niche selection of viewers.
One of the first public

One of the “most unusual” Leitz accessories is up for auction. This year’s WestLicht photography auction features a New York Leica Gun Rifle Prototype, a device that lets photographers shoot images sniper rifle-style. The starting price is €150,000, and it’s expected to fetch up to €350,000 (~$394,000).
The rifle camera comes with its own carrying case and consists of a mirror housing, a bayonet mount viewfinder, a camera body, two lenses with hoods, and a special red lens case.
WestLicht’s listing description says that the whole kit is in 100% original condition and in perfect working order.
This particular rifle camera was originally delivered to Ernst Leitz New York sometime between 1937 and 1939. It was then purchased and owned by a man named Mr. Pojol, who lived in Venezuela from 1937 through 1989.

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